Black Redstart,(Gibraltariensis). Their secret life in our garden.

For the ten years we have owned our house, in the rural Dordogne in France we have been lucky to have nesting Black Redstarts. From early spring as they return from their Winter haunts, their lovely soft whistles and the metallic sound like two ball bearings tapping together, fill the garden.
Although this is early April and it may be cold and drab, for them this is the start of breeding time, nests to be built. This is where things start to become a little dark. This handsome fellow below may take more than one partner, and strangely the females on occacison may share in the building of the primary nest. With the nest looking good, disaster, one of the females arrives and destroys it, this is where we observe a parting of the relationship. Two nests are now being constructed, at opposite ends of our house.
With two nests built it is still far from all happy at the nest!  Recking is common place, all carried out by the female species. This, our moment of sadness, "could we help" No, it gets worse. The nest can be reconstructed, the first clutch of eggs laid, only  to find them broken on the stone below. It is still not a clear picture, they may lay eggs in each others nests. In the photographs below, the nest observed lost the start of two clutches, before we had sight of five youngsters.
     

The handsome male arrives in our garden.

One of the females and Mother bird at our photographed nest site.

Our first sign of happenings at the nest. Low comunication between male and female across our garden.
Another observation here is the fact that a second female may at times help with feeding, usually confined to mornings  and ending with aggressive behaviour between the females.

The first count taken through the the lens was three.

Two days later we are at five chicks.

There will be a difference on their fledging times. (Observe Left to right and there are two much younger  chicks behind these three).

The eldest.

Little red tail feathers just showing.

High speed wing exercise.

The final two.

Out in the garden, after being hidden for several days we see they are progressing well.

There seems to be a great delight in dry bathing on my dried out compost heap.

Then a preen, after removing nest mites.

The fascinating life of one of our garden birds.

September, the rose hips have formed the days are still long and warm, come late October they will have moved south until next Spring.

The reward of taking the time to watch!

Happy Days.

Griffon Vulture (Gypus Fulvus).Photographs. The Vulture feeding station Lumbier. Navarra,Spain.

Leaving Pamplona and heading east towards Yesa and later Jaca, the new A-21 motorway soon brings you to the junction for Lumbier, this takes you on to the NA-127, leading to the hillside town and beyond the beautiful Salazar valley, the Pyrenees form the backdrop with their snow caps.

This is the region of Euskal Herria, the name the Basque give to Navarra in Spain.

We have visited Lumbier many a time, a walk through the Foz de Lumbier is so rewarding, entering the Foz through a disused railway tunnel, the old rail line ran down from Irati. Coming out of the dark, both sides are flanked with steep cliffs, the river below is squeezed falling over the fallen rock. Above are the  Griffon vultures, that we have come to photograph. They wheeled overhead, landing on high cliff edges, lower Red Billed Choughs cascade into holes and on to ledges. At our level you can see Blue Rock Thrush and in winter, if lucky, Wallcreeper. On one occasion we had the luck to see three Otters below, in the river.

Today though, our visit is to the feeding station at Lumbier. It is situated just of the motorway junction and has a public hide. These feeding stations are now so important, European law has stopped dead animal carcasses remaining out on the land where the Griffons used to find their food.

Two hundred and fifty to three hundred Griffons line the hills, around the feeding station.

All the time there are arrivals and others leave, some walk back to to the hill sides, actually it was more of a run and waddle!

Meet the Griffon Vulture, Gypus fulvus,

 

Standing on the farm track, they swish past. You can hear the power in the wings.

Red Kites, in search of a fallen morsel, fly above smaller colonies of Griffons, spread out over further hillsides. Looking through the lens, it seems reminiscent of a ancient army, about to do battle. 

Gliding and soaring on their huge wing spans, some reaching over eight feet across (265cm).

Even at a distance you can see these guys, are bigger than large eagles.

At times they seemed to eye us, as possible food! whilst gliding past.

Although in decline in Europe, they still number about 20,000 pairs, ninety percent of them are to be found in Spain.

Smile for the camera!

Total concentration, coming in to land, eight foot of wing and standing well over three feet tall, 

(WS. 230-265 L. 95-110 cm.) 

In what looks like confusion on the ground, Ravens take a chance and the Griffon enters the fray.

With cloud drifting from the Pyrenees, like the Red Kite it is time for us to take our leave.

Lammergeiers,(Gypaetus Barbatus) Bearded vulture, photographs. Second visit to their world in the high Pyrenees.

The weather looked good, in fact quite beautiful. Rainbows spanning the valley's and gorges. It had snowed here in the last 48hours, this made us wait for our revisit up the high mountains to watch the Lammergeiers.

Cameras, back packs and most important lunch, all secured we set off once more. Leaving the lower mountain areas the weather soon started to change, and not in our favour.

Not long into our climb upwards  we popped out of the swirling cloud, letterbox views allowed us glimpses of the snow clad mountains.

Behind us the weather looked like it may improve.

The rainbow seems to hold the cloud up, giving us a clear view to our destination.

Still a long way to hike, the weather changes by the minute, rain and then sun.

Our first Lammergeiers of the day, battling the ferocious wind, that is now roaring down from the peaks.

As we move along the top edge of the gorge we disturb a group of Griffon vultures, they must have been sitting out the growing storm. As they fly to another sheltered ledge, along the rock face, they pass through another rainbow.

Griffons in the rainbow.

We to have entered the colourful world.

A adult Lammergeier glides along the gorge. In this picture you can clearly see why they also have the name, Bearded vulture.

A low pass, looking for food over the grass cropped short by roaming sheep.

Picking up good light and showing the beard well on this adult.

A juvenile passes on the wind, which is now a problem. This picture not only shows first year mottled
colouring, you also see the much shorter tail and broader wings which do not have the pointed ends.

In the last minutes that it is possible to stay here, another adult glides over the gorge. Looking back at these photos, all seems calm, in reality the wind is now gusting hurricane force, it is hardly possible to stay on your feet, let alone take photographs. It is time to beat a retreat!

As this last adult turns and heads down the gorge we say thank you and head for the cover of the lower  

ground just like them.

It takes five years to attain full adult plumage, just look at those striking lead grey feathers.

Full combat wet weather gear and still wet through but exhilarated, having shared some time with these wonderful birds, high up in the Pyrenees, let us hope for their future and in countries like Switzerland the success of the reintroduction programs.